Investigations revealed that it's possible

To put two 15 gallon barrels end on end on one side of the bus but only one on the other side. That's pretty much what I suspected. It's not possible to put them side by side due to there being insufficient space between the chassis and the skirt. Thus, it looks like I can squeeze in a 15 gallon freshwater tank and a 15 gallon dirty water tank on one side. There's no room for a black tank but that's fine. I went with a bucket solution anyway.

Today was one of those grey, miserable days that threatened and delivered on its threat to rain on everything. What with that and the darkness that comes with rain, nothing was actually achieved on the bus other than to put my latest bus purchases onboard for later use. Last night or this morning, I had an epiphany. I'd previously decided to put the barrels sideways because the ribs would act as stabilisers. Without the ribs as stabilisers I have to put stabilisers. I considered things like plastic door wedges etc but ruled them out as too small. Then I realised brackets would probably work. If the brackets are snug to the sides of the barrel then the barrel should not slop about. 

Lying in the yard from demolition of the hillbilly construction was a 14 inch bracket. As it is strengthened with folds, I picked it up and failed totally to bend it. Thus, 14 inch brackets were added to my shopping list. Clearly today was a shopping day - it just wasn't fit to do anything else!

The first port of call was the local Barnyard flea market where there was a CB kiosk. Those with longer memories will recall that on my trip out with the bus a few days ago, the flexible CB aerial was snapped off by a low hanging tree. Incidentally, it was that tree's turn to meet its maker yesterday morning. For days I had been plotting my revenge on that tree but had been too tired after work to be bothered. Yesterday however, m'lady had somebody in to plough the ground for crops. This is a homestead, after all! On its way out, the tractor clearly had encountered the tree and had snapped it off. Problem solved! It would however have been better timed if the tree had not been snapped off before I went to work. I had to go to the immense effort of getting out of my car to move the corpse before I could exit on my way to work.

Thus the first purchase was a longer CB aerial that I will install after I exit the property and remove before I enter the property! After that it was on to Tractor Supply. There, I found 8 more brackets, some chain that would support 450lb (15 gallons of water is about 125lbs) and some steel cable fasteners that looked idea to secure one end of the chain. The other end can be secured with my U bolts. With the length of the U of the U bolt, they can also be used to tighten the chain.

There are several tasks to be completed this week - the first being the electrical breaker box. Then there are the luggage restraints in the back closet and finally the grey water barrels. The fresh water barrel does not currently exist. Though I bought 3 barrels, they were all used and thus unsuitable for potable water. I'll do the fittings for a fresh water barrel but will have to wait until I am near a U-Line supplier that actually has new barrels in stock.

I've been thinking one way and another about the battery system and the ventillation system. Although I looked into installing a smaller 12v battery, I think my original idea was probably best. That idea was just to use tiny dedicated rechargeable lithium battery packs at $8 each. I figure 4 or 5 is all I'll probably need to power my tablet and phone over a few days without power. 

The solar fan is something I have investigated. There are several around but judging from what people seem to be saying, it's pot luck as to whether or not they actually work. Truth be told, the message coming across from all this solar and wind stuff is that it's very expensive. It's an idealistic thing that really isn't financially worthwhile. As an example, I could spend three or four hundred dollars on a set of solar panels plus about the same on batteries to get the same amount of power I'd get out of an 800w generator that I can get for $100. Given that I just don't have any real use for electricity with my butane stove, an 800W generator seems a trifle excessive! A 400W generator seems more realistic but such generators seem very hard to find. 

For the moment, the solar fan seems to be unavailable. The next thing I looked at was wind-powered extraction fans. Those seem to be massively expensive and available only in Britain though. There are some attic fans available but they're too tall. I don't want to raise the operational height of the bus beyond the three inches of the front vent. The alternative is a small computer fan and a battery or perhaps some kind of roof vent. Perhaps some form of anodised aluminum tubing could be used to draw air out by convection. That would seem to be the simplest and most environmentally friendly option with the bonus that it might even work during the night.

Plans to replace the top flashers with metal blanks still exist as does eventually a plan for a tow hook. There are quite a few underbus plans. One is to put a second video camera and another is to rewire the reversing horn but to a switch on the console. That way I can choose to operate it or not. It doesn't become one of those bloody annoying things that screams at people who aren't there at ungodly hours.

On the whole, things are looking promising. The biggest issue I have is with cutting through the environmentally friendly bullshit. As I've said before and it is a very unpopular argument, solar and wind power are the biggest most steaming piles of bullshit I have ever encountered. I have a 5W solar panel that I have played around with and the amount of power generated wouldn't light a fart let alone a light bulb. Years ago I was suckered into buying a solar panel after listening to the environmental bullshit. I wired it up to charge a flip phone and left it hooked up in a sunny place for a week. At the end of the week, the phone had enough power to operate it for a massive 15 minutes. Let's just say I was distinctly unimpressed. Solar and wind power just don't produce any worthwhile power but let's see who the proponents of solar and wind power are shall we? Impressionable students and salesmen actively trying to sell the crap. Now you know why it doesn't work!

In the post

Today I did it - I posted the application to retitle my bus as a motorhome. As far as I know, that should get to the DMV in a few days. I'll doubtless have to reinsure my bus as a bus before they look at it and change the title since the insurance is up in about a week. The insurance company has been reminding me for the past six weeks to renew my insurance. They just don't realise that I don't ever give anybody free use of my money when it can stay in my own account earning interest until I really have to spend it. Thus, I normally get my insurance on the day before it's really due.

The socket cover I painted yesterday looks really good and matches the rest of the bus rather nicely. I meant to try scraping the paint to see if it comes off as I have little confidence in paint thinner making anything stick to my bus. It seems to reject just about every attempt to prepare the surface for fresh paint. Even stripping down to bare metal could be challenging as the steel is zinc plated. I did get brake fluid just for this but had forgotten about it until now.

In other news, the hour advanced on Sunday night leaving me now with over an hour after I return home before sundown. Had I not been so tired today, I would have worked on my bus. 

I am giving thought to alternatives to power and to attaching my barrels. It strikes me that U bolts could be used to tighten chains and coincidentally would be a load cheaper than using turnbuckles. If I'm right, it could be possible to attach the barrels without needing to do any welding whatsoever underneath the bus.

As far as the house battery is concerned, I suspect plugging into the cigarette lighter socket when I'm driving could well work best unless I can tap into the alternator circuit. Combining that with a charge controller would be an interesting approach. Indeed, looking at the LIon batteries I have been looking at online, I could probably fit them into a small ammunition box. I'm a big fan of small ammunition boxes as I can pack charge controlers, battery meters, cables and USB sockets etc into them as well as the batteries. In other words, a complete and portable power source that can be carried inside the bus. Truth be told though, I'd really prefer to use a supercapacitor

One of the things I'm a fan of is simplicity. Why go to the trouble of slinging things under the bus if it's not essential? The extraction fan for the bedroom can be solar powered on the basis that it's there to remove heat, not ventillate as the bus has plenty ventillation anyway.

With the LIon house battery in a portable case, it could be charged on 120v just about anywhere. The beauty of a standard solution is it can be put together like Lego blocks. Supercaps aren't mainstream which means it'd be a build-it-myself solution and even following published plans, those things don't always work. I really like the idea of building my own electronics but 75% of the time they don't work even when made from a kit and checked scrupulously. Mind, that's petty much my experience of ready-made electronics anyway.

So, the upshot is, tasks remaining to complete:
1. Replacing self-adhesive blinds with roller blinds.
2. Installing waste water tanks.
3. Developing a house-battery solution.
4. Installing a set of bungie cord anchors for the back closet.
5. Replacing or blocking the back door lower window.
6. Replacing or blocking the two back windows.
7. Developing and installing a front door unlocking system.
8. Blanking the school bus flashers.
9. Replacing the arrow indicator lenses with amber flasher lenses.
After all that, I'd say the bus is probably about as ready as it'll ever be. I would kinda like to put some kind of handbasin in the bathroom but a bowl will do quite well.

One of the interesting things that has come to my attention is urine disposal. I hear that peeing in a composting toilet makes the whole thing stink. I'm not quite sure how it will be affected by the fact my toilet is modelled after a cat litter tray. The deposits are simply covered with cat lit. The other day, there was an article in which one bus conversion owner complained she and her girlfriend discovered they had to go and pee in the forest rather than their composting toilet. The upshot was that in the end they replaced their composting toilet with a flush toilet though the domestic toilet they used would use about 10 gallons in a single flush. That's fine for campsites but otherwise, not so great. I would not be too surprised if in the end I decide to install a black tank and a camper toilet. Now the water from that could be pumped from the shower grey tank or if the handbasin empties into a 5 gallon bucket then that could be a source of flush water.

Well, in a few days I should hear more about reclassifiying my bus as a motorhome. I think there's enough there for it to work.

Things that don't work.

Sitting in the bus today, I reflected on things that haven't worked out. Not because of the waste of time and money but because things that haven't worked out have been minimal.
1. My cheap 10-24 bolts that broke under very light pressure.
2. My plan for barrels as water tanks. They're just not available!
3. My multimeter. I bought a multimeter in around 2006 and tried it today. It's totally dead. I tried changing the battery and the internal fuse but it is dead, refusing to move the needle even after twiddling all the adjustments. Yet another gizmo designed not to last very long and another reason not to buy expensive gizmos.

4. Rustoleum paint. This doesn't stick to anything.
5. Silicone sealant. This works well but doesn't stick to PVC. By the time I realised that, I'd already laid my PVC floors. Had I known this before, I'd have used latex sealant instead as that does stick to PVC. That would have meant I would not have needed a shower base. As for the roof, the silicone sealant works but doesn't lie flat. That could be a problem if a tree branch rubbed the raised seal off.
6. Latex paint. This looks good and adheres well. It's just not that rugged.
7. Interior. Were I doing this again, I'd probably do it very differently. I did it the way I have because I was aiming at an all electric installation. I think I'd put less woodwork inside and I'd put a pot bellied stove to compensate in colder weather. I've designed my installation as more of a home for extended periods. I'd probably have been better keeping it more like a weekend camper.
8. It looks like some of my NiCad batteries haven't survived. I tried charging them today.

9. My microwave. Sure it didn't cost much but it should have lasted longer than a mere 2 years. I used it daily from November of 2011 to April of 2015. By mid 2013 the paint was bubbling and peeling. I wouldn't use that microwave now. It's just in too poor condition.

10. Electromagnets - I'd just make my own rather than fiddling about waiting for them to come from China.

As far as I've gone, I'm happy. I need to thin out my stuff - I have too many clothes so I need to get shot of stuff that no longer fits. I might need to thin down on books to - perhaps go for ebooks instead? I've also got a pile of broken mobile phones, old chargers and general electronic wiring garbage - the kind you build up on all the time. I probably need to cut down in crockery too. I have a set of cheap mainstays China that cost me a princely $10.

Since my microwave has clearly died, I'm wondering whether I should go for something like a small gas burner and put an extraction fan in. That would increase water usage as I'd have to do more washing of saucepans but would decrease the need for electricity. That would put me squarely into boondocking territory. Having viewed the prices though, a replacement microwave seems better as well as safer.

Going forward the plan is - given a dry weekend - to redo all the bolts in my underbody compartment. This weekend was a loss because of the rain. There are a lot of dry weekend tasks to be completed, if ever there is another dry weekend. There seems to be somewhat of a plot against me these days as every weekend is wet. I blame the French! Only the French can be underhanded enough to inflict me with wet weekends.

Sealing or rather resealing the roof seams and repainting will all have to be done in due course. I'd love to have done more over the summer but what with heat exhaustion, it was rather hard. It'd be nice to be able to work under cover but building even the cheapest cover over my bus would be prohibitively expensive.

This weekend, nothing much was achieved bar a redesign of the plumbing necessitated by availability of supplies. With luck, next weekend will be better.

I'll have to do something about onboard humidity. 78% is high. Maybe I should get a Peltier dehumidifier and try to run it from a solar panel? If that works, it bodes well for a Peltier fridge.

Lol. What a load of plonkers!

Out of interest, I had another look at the bus conversion forum online. Yup... They're still mostly plonkers. I put a simple question about paint and had answers from the outlandish to the ridiculous. Not one could name a barrier primer nor the best value economy top coat yet they all claim to have busses and all claim to have repainted them!

Today I visited Tractor Supply. I didn't buy much. In fact I spent less than $10 but in addition to 100 10-24 nuts and two M4 bolts. I got some 1\4x20 bolts, nuts and lock nuts. Thinking about it, I'd probably have been better off buying all my nuts and bolts from Tractor Supply as they sell them by the pound!

The 1\4x20 bolts will carry way in excess of 1200lbs before sheering. Again, looking for the sheer strength online produced very dubious looking figures. My usual go-to source of The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics didn't have anything bar a definition of sheer strength. Perhaps my engineering handbook would but at the moment it cannot be located.

The 4mm bolt did the biz. This screws into my electro magnet nicely. The bolt is a shade too long but I can always space it off with washers or even trim the bolt a shade with my angle grinder. All I need is to bolt one to a steel bracket and the other to the underside of the latch and the bracket to the bulkhead beneath the latch and its a very simple electro unlocking mechanism. They always say to keep it simple!

If the dual electro magnet affair works as hoped then it would be possible to add remote unlocking. Remote locking could be more challenging, however.

Thinking about a pull on the front door to close it, I realised that as I have a penchant for large size keyrings, I could put a small hook on the outside of the door and use my keyring to pull it shut. Thus I would also be more certain of not locking my keys in the bus!

Sheer strength

Not knowing the sheer strength of my 10-24 bolts, I asked Fastenal who were the suppliers and they reckoned on 1200lbs. Thus, they seem ideally suited for my battery compartment. I will, of course put them in multiples, just in case. I had a feeling they were the right bolts when I bought them. In any case, steel rivets would have had a sheer strength of 700lbs.

Yesterday I spoke of the difficulty of getting work. Here is a prime example: I applied online to one of the jobs advertised as being local and had this response.

Clearly I applied for a position on Indeed.com. That's evidenced by the email subject of "Patient Relations Call Center Representative job in Columbia, SC". I receive an email telling me to "come in and apply for this position." So, which is it? A job I applied for or a job I didn't apply for?

Obviously it was a fake job put up by an agency that leaves honey traps to collect resumes. Aside from this being exceedingly dishonest and immoral, they expect me to come to an office over 20 miles from my home and 40 miles from my job, at a time when I will be at work. It's incredibly rude for them to expect me to miss work just to come to waste time and money on a visit to an office without it being an actual interview with an actual employer. If the job was actually working FOR Roper Staffing as a bona fide employee at their office then OK but a spurious visit? Good God, if they think I have time to waste plus gas money to waste on whatever this is, they're insane! Sadly, this kind of thing is so common with agencies that I skip any advert that looks like its from an agency. Needless to say, that leaves very few genuine jobs online. In 20+ years I have never had anything from agencies bar my time and money being utterly wasted.

Hence, since admin and senior admin seem to be treated by South Carolina employers as a "women only" job, I'm building the bus so I can get a job with more forward looking, modern world employers. Indeed, its so bad in Columbia that I rarely apply for jobs here. As an example, I applied for a job, had an email requesting me to ring to book an interview and was told there were no jobs. My lady friend rang 30 minutes later and was told there were lots of jobs and to come on in. That's just one of many examples of sexism in Columbia, SC.

The naysayers

A few days ago, I noticed some leaks inside the bus. I'm not quite sure where they're coming from because the likely seams have already been hit with silicone seal. Today, assuming a dry spell, would be an opportune time to have a look on the roof to see what's going on.

Needless to say, my thought of tracking down the actual leak and spot sealing it with silicone caulk or aluminum tape got poo poohed. One day I will stop paying any heed at all to what others say on allegedly sensible online groups. I bet the people that run commercial bus companies fix their leaks cheaply and easily. I bet they don't do what the people on those groups insist is the only method which is to put a $200 bucket of Kool Seal. Kool Seal didn't exist when I was young and buses didn't have leaky rooves. Clearly the Kool Seal only idea is yet another example of internet groups following their leader like lemmings. In fact, I find the vast majority of other people are a bit lemming like but this is especially pronounced in online groups. It used to be especially entertaining to go to sit in an internet cafe with a book and a cup of tea to just watch the rows of lemmings glued to computers. Indeed, my dad used to run a library and his prime complaint was of people that would sit down to play with the computer and who would be there all day, hogging the computer without even going to the bathroom. Indeed they even exhibited aggression when asked to allow others to use the computers. Basically, an addictive reaction.

As far as Kool Seal goes, $200 is a ludicrous price to pay to fix a leak that could be fixed with a small patch of tape or silicone seal. Certainly, if there were multiple leaks then an all over solution might be good. For patches, its very much overkill. I'll just never truly understand peoples thinking.

The plan otherwise was to put bolts onto all the newly installed drawers and to paint the dinette floor though with oil based paint rather than latex. As today is a day when I could be called in for work, I had an ear open for my phone while working.

The roof leak has flooded my countertop at some point. I'm glad to see the wood has not been adversely affected despite having swollen slightly. One of my receipts has been washed clean of ink, however. As soon as there's a dry day, that leak will have to be located. Had I had vinyl stuck down then the water would have caused damage. I'm glad I stuck with the cheaper option!

Meanwhile, here's a photo of my first drawer lock.

Putting it on required a piece of hardboard to space the bolt assembly off the structure. Putting the receiver on was tricky. That involved all kinds of fiddling but it worked in the end. That was the first drawer. There are seven more! I'll be so glad when this bus project is completed.

I'm very clearly still not over my recent illness. I did one bolt and had to rest due to feeling wobbly. I returned and did another two and felt more wobbly. Clearly I still have some recovery to do. Having said that, 3/8 of the bolts are now installed.

Yesterday I plugged the bus into the power supply. Today I had not just my battery hurricane lantern but a real, honest to goodness electric light in there. That made working so much easier!

Reading further about roof seals, apparently Kool Seal only lasts 5 years or so. That's $75 for what I'd call a bodged roof repair. Bus Kote is $200 and requires a protective coating which likely is another hundred or so.

The hillbillies that had the bus before me had attached hooks to the bus which probably attached a tarpaulin over the roof. Clearly their caulking didn't quite solve the problem. Thus, on the first dry day I'll put aluminum tape up and paint over it all! It might even be worth painting the seams and rivets white then putting tape then painting grey. That way, damaged areas of tape will be easily visible.

The bolts are looking quite good. I managed a further two before feeling wobbly and having to take a further break. I suspect it's going to be like this for a few days yet. Of course the bolts all work well. When they're completed, I can finish cleaning and tidying the dinette. After that I should put up curtains, paint the floor and possibly screw down the shower base as well as giving thought to securing the microwave and erecting my dry erase board.

Well, that's all 8 bolts installed. My drawers will not now open in transit. Of that, I am certain. I definitely overdid it today with activity, even just kneeling with a power drill putting in 6 screws at a time!

As far as work goes, it didn't matter whether there was reception or not - the blasted thing with 75% battery had turned itself off in my pocket! I hate Android with a passion! In fact I'm quite with those guys Eric spoke about that live in zero electricity houses! Needless to say, there was a voicemail from work but oh well. Too late to call them.

posted from Bloggeroid

Bolts galore!

A week or so back I ordered some bolts for my drawers. Today they arrived and mightily stout they are too. Way better than I'd expected and far cheaper than the flimsier versions I was considering earlier. I'm very happy! They'll need a piece of hardboard behind them in order to center the bolt in the drawer but that's not a problem. These things are stout and will hold my drawers closed even if an elephant is trying to break out!

For those with short memories, these are the bolts. I took a photo today but for some unknown reason my phone couldn't achieve correct focus. It wasn't worth digging out a camera and a laptop just for a single photo!

I had a good hunt through the junk I removed from the bus to see if I could find an appropriate nut for the shower waste pipe but they were either too big or two small. With my luck, this will be some bizarre size nobody has ever heard of. Danco, the manufacturer, refused to supply a further nut even though I was willing to pay money and postage. Lowe's who weren't helpful in the store suddenly decided to make a show of helping online (for publicity) but that so far has achieved nothing worthwhile.

The economy must be booming with nobody unemployed any more if companies can afford to turn business away! Clearly my eyes must be deceiving me when I see people begging beside the road, banks repossessing homes and people being thrown out of their homes.

The nut needed is probably an oddball size. I measured the pipe at 1.48 inches on the outside of the threads and 1.45 inches on the inside of the threads. Clearly this is either going to be an undersized 1.5 inch thing or something wacky like 37 or 38 millimeters.

My big gripe about US plumbing is that just about everything is a non standard size. Even two allegedly identically sized things can be way off identical. This is probably why the hillbillies that converted the bus the first time around, gave up!

I did discover a specialist plumbing supply company not far away. It's probably worth paying them a visit. They might even be able to supply something better of a more standard size.

Looking at the heavy angle iron that I have, I'll need something stout to secure that to the bus. Being as heavy as it is, I might be well advised to use rivets rather than bolts. Clearly my little hand riveter isn't up to the task of using rivets the size needed. Thus, after being astounded at the cost of electric and air riveters, I saw a riveter powered by .22 cartridges. It's more expensive in operation but given the small amount of riveting needed, could well work out cheaper. Welding would be the best solution but as I've never welded, now's not a good time to try.

The plan with the cable compartment is to rebuild it properly. I'll probably house one or if possible, two batteries in it. One would be ample to power things like fans and USB power supplies etc. I might visit the scrapyard for some stouter materials.

Procured!

Today I found some little brass bolts on eBay for half the cheapest previous bolts. These should hold my drawers closed. It's a bit of a victory as 8 of them came in for under $20!

The seller had only six listed so I emailed him to ask if he was expecting more, mentioning I need eight. He replied back that he had 20 in stock and upped the availability to ten so, I bought my eight. I'm quite pleased with that!

Meanwhile somebody suggested a marine foot pump for water rather than a hand pump. I'm thinking on that one. Another interesting suggestion was to use an Igloo cooler to hold my hot water. I'd been wondering what kind of waterproof container could hold warm water and how to insulate it. Pow! Problem solved! Keeping a rectangular container onboard should be no problem and I'm unlikely to use more than 5 gallons having a shower.

Looking at water usage figures, they're all over the place. One source says 50 gallons for a shower. Another says 25 and somebody using a portable electric shower head says less than 5.

One of the comments about my proposed manual water system was it was too much hard work to use. Honestly, the manual aspect seems much easier to me and in use will gradually become everyday.

This weekend might see the grey water tank purchased and installed. That might involve trips to Lowe's though. Mind, Lowe's has become like a second home to me! I'm not going to pretend the white tank will be installed this weekend. There's no pump yet!